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ICAO Assists Blacklisted Airlines

After an ICAO audit that put Kazakhstan’s airlines on the EU Blacklist, the ICAO has just signed an agreement to assist Kazakhstan’s Informational-Managerial Services

The agreement promises to:

  • Create an operational structure
  • Train qualified technical personnel
  • Detail certification
  • Monitor
  • Render technical assistance

Kazakhstan Treaty Status

Kazaeronavigatsia, the Republic of Kazakhstan’s National Air Navigation Services Provider (ANSP), intends to render safe service over Kazakhstan’s airspace, and is planning three consolidated ATC centers in Astana, Aktobe and Almaty; and 15 remote control towers which will be a part of ATC Centers, forming seamless airspace over entire Kazakhstan territory on a single hardware and software.

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    NTSB KICKS OFF YEAR-LONG EFFORT ON CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY, DEBUTS EDUCATIONAL VIDEO

    National Transportation Safety Board
    Washington, DC 20594

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 9, 2010

    The National Transportation Safety Board today concluded its public forum, Child Passenger Safety in the Air and in Automobiles. NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman announced in her opening remarks that the forum marked the beginning of a year-long effort by the Board to promote child passenger safety across all modes of transportation.

    “Safety for our smallest travelers should not be considered optional or a luxury,” said Chairman Hersman.

    As part of the NTSB’s safety advocacy efforts, a short video focusing on the importance of properly securing children in cars and on airplanes was debuted at the start of the forum. The full video is now at www.ntsb.gov/children, as well as two shorter versions – one focused on highway safety and one focused on aviation safety. All three versions soon will be available in Spanish.

    “The laws of physics don’t change, whether you are on an airplane or in an automobile,” said Chairman Hersman. “Children rely on their parents to know what is safest for them. The purpose of our forum was to make sure that parents have the information to do the right thing.”

    Chairman Hersman also noted that 18 other states, as well as American Samoa and Puerto Rico, should amend their existing booster seat laws to reflect the Safety Board’s longstanding recommendation.

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    Protestations of Bias in Official BEA Report

    In George’s Point of View


    Like the pilot association, we wonder how blaming the victims will improve the state of aviation.

    The pilots of Air France Flight 447 had already lost valid data before the Airbus A330 stalled. Fell for three minutes down into the Atlantic in June of 2009, carrying the 228 people aboard to their death. Fell, with pilots flying blind. Fell, with only erroneous data available. Fell with the warning system squawking confused messages. Yet the Bea report says this was was the pilot’s fault.

    We want to know if this investigation will turn out to be deliberate persecution of the pilots instead of legitimate prosecution of Airbus flawed design?

    It is no wonder that the families of the victims are crying foul that the report criticizes pilot performance but not the faulty stall alarms.
    It is no wonder that pilot associations all over the world are protesting.
    It is no wonder that the BEA is being accused of protecting Airbus.

    Why would the recommendation to improve the warning system be removed from the report?
    Why, if not to protect Airbus, scheming to avoid the legal and financial consequences of the crash?

    Pilots say that the stall alarm tends to sound while simultaneously messaging the pilots to ignore the “superfluous” warning. Airbus denies this ever happens.

    How valid can the report be if it is being skewed to protect Airbus and blame the pilots? Should the BEA be placed under criminal investigation alongside with Air France and Airbus?

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    FAA Initial Report of Starwood Management Learjet that Killed Jenni Rivera Entourage


    What: Learjet 25 en route from Monterrey to Toluca
    Where: Los Tejocotes
    When: December 9 20123:30
    Who: 7 aboard
    Update:
    IDENTIFICATION
    Regis#: 345MC Make/Model: LJ25 Description: LEARJET 25
    Date: 12/09/2012 Time: 0630

    Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
    Damage: Destroyed

    LOCATION DESCRIPTION
    AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO A MOUNTAINOUS AREA, THE 7 PERSONS ON BOARD WERE FATALLY INJURED, 61 MILES FROM MONTEREY, MEXICO

    INJURY DATA
    Total Fatal: 7
    # Crew: 7 Fat: 7

    NTSB Assists Government of Mexico in Aviation Accident
    December 10
    Washington – The NTSB is dispatching investigators to assist the government of Mexico in its investigation of the crash of a Learjet LJ25.

    On December 9, 2012 at about 3:30 a.m. local time, the airplane crashed about 70 miles south of Monterrey, Mexico, due to unknown circumstances while en route to Mexico City, Mexico. All 7 persons on board were fatally injured including Latin singer Jenni Rivera.

    NTSB Chairman Deborah A. P. Hersman has designated David Helson as the traveling U.S. Accredited Representative. Mr. Helson will be assisted from NTSB headquarters by investigative staff specializing in airplane airworthiness and flight crew operations as well as advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Learjet.

    More on Learjet
    Read More
    Read More

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    Foreign Airliner Leasing & Financing Un-Deserving Operators

    Arik Air Ltd., and Aero Contractors Co. of Nigeria Ltd., Nigeria’s top two airlines, have been banned from getting loans by Nigeria’s Central Bank due to the massive debt they have accrued. Arik Air owes Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria more than $534 million. Aero Contractors owes more than $203 million. A bank that loans money to these airlines will face “serious fines from the government.” Air Nigeria recently collapsed owing crew a debt of four months’ pay, in addition to $175 million in loans to Nicon Investments Ltd..

    Only three Nigerian airlines remain in operation. Arik Air has not published a date when it will resume flying.

    Officially, according to the BBC, the carrier resumed domestic flights on Sunday Sept 24. However we did get anonymous input from Monrovia that as of Saturday, Sept 22nd, Arik Air was flying.

    In George’s Point of View

    Before making a loan, banks need to look past the uncertainties in airline survival, aircraft value, interest rates and the airline’s credit worthiness.

    This is what the aircraft leasing companies should do:

    Stop leasing planes to operators that are careless in their maintenance and pilot training.

    Leasing companies should not look only at credit worthiness. Yes, that is one factor, but it is only part of the picture. Leasing companies must also make judgements based on the history of the airline operator performance, and maintenance.

    If credit and performance history all checks out, the oversight is not over. The leasing company should monitor every single plane they have leased out to foreign operators.

    If monitoring reveals any problems whatsoever, that pilots are not being trained, that they are not getting enough sleep, that the operator or aircraft goes on a black list, that the operator is shown to be negligent in any way, then the lessor should endeavor immediately to pickup/repossess that plane.

    Maintaining every aspect of the plane’s maintenance, flight operations, crew resource management, and crew training is as crucial to the contract agreement as payments. Failure to keep everything up to date is as much a breach of contract and cause for action as is failure to pay.

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    Update on the Associated Jet Crash in Nigeria


    On Oct 3, 2013, a twenty-three year old Associated Aviation Embraer EMB-120 was en route from Lagos to Akure to carry the deceased regional governor and family to his funeral in Akure when it crashed, killing 16. Four survivors were hospitalized.

    The NCAA said the airline had coverage and the plane’s paperwork and inspections were up to date. The flight data recorder has been recovered.

    The son of the late former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, Feyi, was aboard the plane and survived the crash. The passengers included family members taking the body of Olusegun Agagu, a former aviation minister, to his funeral.

    Read more on the Associated Aviation Embraer EMB-120 crash.

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    Air France, Airbus Playing “Hot Potato” with Responsibility

    Air France denies responsibility for the Air France Flight 447 crash, saying that they had raised concerns about the sensors before the crash.

    If they did so, it would seem the memorandum they presented indicates that they were aware of the problem, and therefore responsible. Though Air France “submitted a memorandum to show it had taken ‘all possible precautions” after a series of earlier sensor failures,’ ” it would seem the memorandum would indicate that they were aware of a problem, and should have cancelled flights until the problem was corrected. Certainly passengers were not made aware that there was a potentially serious issue.

    If Airbus had really been concerned, they would have installed the $50,000 backup system used by other carriers in the event of a multiple airspeed sensor failure.

    Watching Air France and Airbus (and Thales) shift blame for the crash back and forth is like watching a child’s game of “hot potato.” When they are finished passing the buck, who ever ends up officially responsible, the victims are still just as dead. Time for someone to “man up.”

    There are rumors that a request will be made to Transport Minister Thierry Mariani to continue the search for the black box. Three earlier searches failed, seeking the Airbus SAS A330, which crashed into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 people aboard. 6,700 square miles was searched for the acoustic pings, but the batteries are now dead, and searches changed to sonar imaging.

    The BEA claims that only the black boxes will tell the truth of what happened but drags its feet in continuing the search. On May 6th 2010, a French deputy minister told the public that the black boxes had been found (meaning, apparently, that their general location had been pinned down.) That report was withdrawn. That fact, combined with the BEA reluctance to continue searching, has led to persistent rumors of a cover-up.

    Private shareholders own 81.4% of Air France, 37% held by former Air France shareholders and 21% held by former KLM shareholders. The Government of France owns 18.6% of Air France—putting the BEA in the awkward position of heading an investigation where it has essentially owes 18.6% responsibility.

    Air France was fined €310 million this month for price fixing. Read about their response to the fine

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